Document Design

Why is it important to have a good document? A good document design is important to send out proper message and getting the audience's attention. It is essential to have good design and writing on a document in order to be considered as a good document.

As suggested by Putnis & Petelin (1996), the requirements of a good document design is to be able to aid the readers to read efficiently and to emphasize the most important content.

As mentioned by Reep (2006), there are four types of format elements that should be considered; written cues, white space, colour and typographic devices. Therefore, there are certain components such as information arrangements, margins, allignments and etc. that should be considered in a good document design.

A comparison of my group and individual presentation slides will be used to demonstrate a good document design.

image A

image B

Nielson (1997) claimed that the standpoints presented by the writer must be explained concisely and supported by relevant examples to form an understandable image in the reader’s mind. With that, it is obvious that my individual presentation slide (image B) is better than the group presentation slides (image A). As an example, I mentioned more important information in my slides and made a clear-cut of what will be discussed in my presentation in order to give my classmates a better understanding. My points were also supported by local examples and points from other readings that I used. In order to make it simple, I used bullets to list my points.

image C

image D

Design is also one of the essential elements of a good document besides writing. As mentioned by Reep (2006), readers tend to notice the features of a document with the most “weight” first. In contrary, it is also suggested that a good document ought to isolate the supportive ideas from the main idea as the audience tends to have divided attention when reading a document. Therefore, in my presentation (image D), I have included two of the most important points on a slide to gain my audience’s attention compared to my group presentation (image C) which only have one point on each slide.

References:

Putnis, P, Petlin, R 1996, Professional communication: principles and applications, Writing to communicate, Prentice hall, Sydney.

Reep, D 2006, Technical writing, 6th edn, Pearson Edu, Inc., New York.

Nielsen, J 1997, Reading on the Web (Alertbox), viewed 20th April 2009, www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html.

Kress, G, & van Leeuwen, T 2006. Reading images Chapter 1: The Semiotic landscape : language and visual communication.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 2006. Reading images Chapter 6: The meaning of composition.

Hello and Welcome!

"We must welcome the future, remebering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that it was once all that was humanly possible".

- George Santayana -

Welcome, readers, to my blog. My blog will assist you to explore deeper into the realm of media, blogging, publications and designs. This blog is mainly targeted for students and people who wish to learn more about the media and especially the subject of Issues in Publications and Design.